A prominent figure in the world of linguistics and socialism, Naom Chomsky once described the U.S. media in his quote, “Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the U.S. media.” Negative a quote as it may seem, past political influence on the media was not, in fact, quite as destructive as Chomsky believes it to be. Although the government has, under several occasions, interfered with the media, history proves to us that the U.S. media has almost never been used as a dictator’s weapon for power. However, that is not a cause to undermine the fact that the U.S. media might very well become such a weapon, if not properly protected.

The main purpose of media has always been to educate, inform, or entertain; yet always with the people’s best interests at heart. The people are the ones who must know the truth of what is happening both abroad as well as under their very feet. The people are the ones who must be educated in the advances of technology. The people are the ones for whom we must provide entertainment. Nevertheless, the people seem to be what the media is least concerned about at the current moment. Chomsky’s statement perhaps would not have applied to the U.S. media as it was known in the twentieth century, but it does now. Every day, the media is printing, not what we as the people have grown to expect of it, but rather what the authorities, what the government, believes the public needs to know.

With that in mind, it is exceedingly easy for a dictator to control the media in the future, to mold the truth into an entity that is more pleasurable to him or her, more easily accepted by the people, and ultimately shows him or her as a better figure. This “malediction,” as we could call it, has shown itself as active and used by several dictators; Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, or Josef Lenin being a few examples. However, these dictators have later been shunned, cast aside as murderers and cowards. If the U.S. media is truly being led towards a phase where the government will have complete control over it, then we might as well consider the government to have complete control over our minds. We might as well give the government the keys to our minds, to our dreams, to our ambitions. Now, if the government did not have the people’s best interest at heart, then our country is being led towards utter destruction.

The U.S. media under control of Eleanor Roosevelt, has persuaded American citizens to adopt President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal as a mindset and pull the United States of America back on its feet once again. The U.S. media, under control of the government, persuaded hundreds of thousands of Americans to plant “victory gardens” during World War ll , and raise money to help American soldiers fighting abroad. Nevertheless, we might assume, correctly, that the U.S. media, under control of Hitler or Mussolini would have met quite the same automated response from the people. That assertion, I believe, is Chomsky’s main message.

As long as the U.S. media does not retain the ability to differentiate between what should be done and what should not be done; as long as the people blindly perform what the government, or the media, tells them to perform, then it will be ever so easy for a dictator to use the media as a pen to forever carve his initials into the soil of the land, with the blood of the people.

– Ayah Gouda